As we usher in the warm month of April, we welcome the start of another harvest season of rice and other basic food crops with the traditional celebration of the Panagyaman Rice Festival Month. This annual event seeks to draw public attention to the vital role that rice plays in providing food for Filipinos.
To stress the role of small farmers, the country's backbone in the campaign for a Hunger-Free Philippines, Presidential Proclamation No. 606 was issued declaring April as Panagyaman Rice Festival Month. This year's observance is a way of expressing our "pasasalamat (thanksgiving) for the successful implementation of hybrid rice production and irrigation development programs."
Filipinos traditionally celebrate this annual ritual of thanksgiving for a good harvest with merry-making and music, and festive colors, from the playing of the kwintangan kayu of the Yakans in Basilan, to ritual offerings to the Ampo't Paray or Rice God, to the Pahiyas Festival in Lucban, Quezon.
Rice Planting and harvesting have long been basic elements of Philippine culture and have inspired artistic expression.
For centuries, rice has been a recurring theme and symbol in our folk rituals. Filipino creativity and resourcefulness have also given rice new uses, from rice coffee and rice tea, to carbonized rice hull, to rice paper, and a host of other rice applications.
The Panagyaman Rice Festival Month should serve to inspire everyone to truly value rice beyond its nutritive value. It should likewise inspire us to appreciate the invaluable contribution of our rice farmers to our country's economy and food security, in general, and to every Filipino household.
With our rising population, the need to address the growing rice insufficiency remains a tough challenge. It continues to be an imperative for research and development efforts for better and high-yield rice varieties, to be complemented by increased areas for rice farms, ready access to technical support, and availability of subsidies for improved irrigation facilities and pest control and fertilizer needs, as well as farm-to-market facilities.
